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Law School Hosts Sixth Annual William French Smith Memorial Lecture on the Law of Climate Change

The School of Law at Pepperdine will host law professors, judges, and attorneys to participate in the sixth annual William French Smith Memorial Lecture on Friday, Oct. 19. This year’s event, themed “The Law of Climate Change,” will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Henry J. and Gloria Caruso Auditorium at the School of Law, Malibu. 

Up first, the Scholars' Presentations on "Legal Issues of Climate Change" will feature professor John C. Nagle of Notre Dame Law School and professor Lisa E. Heinzerling of Georgetown University Law Center.

The second half of the event will feature a bench of judges and two advocates battling it out in the Climate Change Mock Oral Argument, "Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp., 663 F. Supp. 2d (N.D. Cal. 2009)." David M. Axelrad, partner at Horvitz & Levy LLP, will take on the role of the appellant, and Richard O. Faulk, partner at Gardere Wynne Swell LLP, will be the respondent before a bench of three: the Honorable David B. Sentelle, Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit; the Honorable Timothy M. Tymkovich, Judge of the Tenth Circuit; and Kenneth W. Starr, president of Baylor University and former Pepperdine School of Law dean.

Named in honor of the former attorney general, the William French Smith Memorial Lectures on Law and the Judiciary are an ongoing tribute to Smith. Smith served as U.S. Attorney General from 1981 to 1985. A longtime friend and confidant of President Ronald Reagan, he helped formulate the vital policies that came to be identified with the Reagan administration. Read his biography here.

Past speakers in the Pepperdine series include Supreme Court Justices the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy, the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, the Honorable Clarence Thomas, Baylor University president Kenneth W. Starr, and the Honorable Samuel Alito.

Register for the sixth annual William French Smith Memorial Lecture online. For more information, call 310.506.4266 or visit the School of Law website.